Violence at St. Joe’s

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St. Joseph’s West 5th campus is a Hamilton psychiatric hospital with a troubling record of violence towards nurses. While the newly renovated facility was intended to minimize the stigma around mental health, it may be doing the exact opposite as the number of nurse attacks continue to grow.

Behind the walls of St. Joseph’s West 5th campus nurses are subjected to violence with little help, that’s what a patient told us who has witnessed attacks on her ward.

“I have seen someone try to choke out a nurse, I’ve seen them be punched in the face and other body parts.”

This 20 year old woman suffering from depression says the assaults are taking a toll on the patients and the staff, who rely on a security system that is failing them.

“They’ll call for security, security sometimes doesn’t get there fast enough.”

Lisa Yanch has suffered the consequences of the hospitals inaction. Working at West 5th for 35 years, she has been thrown through drywall, punched in the face and had her wrist broken. She’s retired and speaking on behalf of her co-workers who still face that same fate every day.

The blame has been placed on the way the newly renovated hospital is designed, Yanch calling it a perfect storm of dysfunction with a lack of barriers for the nurses and where seclusion rooms have been reduced. According to the hospital’s statistics, nurse attacks are increasing, up 41% since this new hospital opened back in 2014.

In a statement from the president of St. Joseph’s, Dr. David Higgins says he considers staff safety a priority and he says St. Joe’s is working closely with staff to enhance their systems. But the statement doesn’t address why the attacks continue to go up or why when we talk to nurses, they don’t feel like anything is being done. Dr. Higgins wouldn’t grant us an interview where we could ask those questions and the pressure is mounting from the Ministry of Labour to make necessary changes after they issued 24 charges against the hospital since December 2015.